The promises of God are prophecies of good; so are his threatening prophecies of evil. Prophecy, therefore, gives no countenance to fatalism, since it is made to depend upon conditions. God may, therefore, repent him of evils threatened, viz. when sinners repent of the sin that provoked him. So long as the Hebrews were faithful to their God, they found him faithful in mercy; when they rebelled, they found him no less faithful in judgment. What a commentary upon the verses before us is the history of the Israelites! Let us review -

I. THE JUDGMENTS DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM IN THEIR LAND. For their rebellion:

1. They were to be visited with plagues.

(1) The plague of terror. This is the natural plague of a guilty conscience. The apprehension of formidable judgments.

(2) Of consumption. This term expresses all chronic diseases.

(3) Of burning ague. This describes those diseases which are more acute.

(4) All these plagues are to "consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart."

2. They were to suffer from invasion.

(1) The sword of the enemy was to consume them. How fearfully they suffered under the judges, under the kings, and afterwards!

(2) The exactions of the tyrant were to distress them. When the invaders mastered them, how grievously were they oppressed!

3. They were to encounter the anger of their God.

(1) The plague and the sword of the enemy could not otherwise have visited them.

(2) But in the source itself there is the most formidable terror. "I will set nay face against you."

4. Their obstinacy was to bring upon them aggravated evils.

(1) The land was to become unfruitful. For the heaven was to be like iron, which might reflect the glare of heat, but could distil no rain or dew.

(2) Wild beasts were to come among them. When the people become diminished by war and pestilence and famine, wild animals multiply and become formidable (see Numbers 21:6; 2 Kings 17:25; 2 Kings 2:24; Ezekiel 5:17).

(3) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Rather let us seek his mercy.

II. THOSE DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM IN THE LANDS OF THEIR CAPTIVITY.

1. They were to be scattered amongst the heathen (verse 33).

(1) Thus ten of the tribes were carried away by the Assyrians.

(2) The two remaining tribes were afterwards removed by the Babylonians.

(3) Some of these returned under Ezra and Nehemiah, and were ultimately carried away by the Romans.

2. The sword was to/follow them there.

(1) The sword of war.

(2) The sword of persecution. So they suffered from pagans, from papists, from Mohammedans.

3. They were to suffer astonishment (verses 36-39).

(1) Faintness of heart, suspicion of danger where it existed not, susceptibility to panic.

(2) Pining in terror.

(3) Perishing through the rapacity of their enemies.

4. Their sufferings were to be protracted.

(1) The land was to enjoy her sabbaths, Houbigant observes how literally this was fulfilled in the seventy years of the Babylonish Captivity. "From Saul to the Babylonish Captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy sabbaths of years; for seven, multiplied by seventy, make four hundred and ninety. Now, the Babylonish Captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish Captivity as it should have rested sabbaths if the Jews had observed the law relative to the sabbaths of the land."

(2) The longer term of "seven times" thrice repeated (verses 21, 24, 28) is also notable. These are the "times of the Gentiles," during which Jerusalem is to be trodden down of them (Luke 21:24).

5. Meanwhile their land was to lie desolate (verses 31-35).

(1) Such has been its history, under the Romans, under the Saracens, under the Crusaders, under the Turks.

(2) Who but God could have foreseen all this? How unreasonable is unbelief! - J.A.M.

I. WHAT WERE THE REASONS UPON WHICH GOD MIGHT BE SUPPOSED, UNDER THE LAW, TO HAVE INSTITUTED MORE SOLEMN AND SET TIMES OF WORSHIP.

1. As to the reasonableness of the institution in general, it was highly agreeable to the natural light of mankind upon these following accounts.(1) All external worship is designed to give us impressions of greater reverence for the Divine Majesty. Now, such is the temper of human nature, that men have much less regard for those things that are common than for those which have some peculiar mark of distinction set upon them.(2) It being one of the first principles of natural religion that God is to be publicly worshipped, order requires that there should be some determinate and public times set apart for His worship and piety, that such times should be vacations from the common affairs of human life.(3) It being a further end of religious worship to advance the spiritual life and bring us nearer unto God, it is not only agreeable to piety, but to all the maxims of religious prudence, that the times appropriated to the more solemn worship of God should be distinguished by a cessation from the common business of life, that by this means, our minds being wholly taken off from earthly things, they may be more open to the heavenly impressions of grace and truth.

2. These are some of the natural reasons upon which we may account for God's commanding His people to keep His Sabbath, that is, all the stated and solemn times of His public worship; but what I have here principally an eye to is the institution of the Sabbath, which the Jews were so forcibly enjoined to keep holy in the Fourth Commandment. Now, the two principal reasons of this institution seem to have been —(1) That hereby they acknowledged God to be the Lord, the Creator and Governor of the world; and —(2) That they acknowledged Him to be in a more eminent and peculiar manner their God by delivering them out of the hand of Egypt.

II. HOW FAR THOSE REASONS, IN EITHER RESPECT, HOLD GOOD UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

1. The general reasons I laid down for setting apart some solemn time for the worship of God certainly extend to us Christians, and to all the nations under heaven, as well as to the Jews. Indeed, when we consider that to everything under the sun there is a time, and that the natural order of things requires there should be so, it seems highly reasonable that some stated seasons should be appropriated to His service, to whom we owe all the moments of our time and the capacity of all other enjoyments. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy any one duty arising from the law of nature or the common principles of natural religion, but to give all such duties their utmost force.

2. The great difficulty to be considered is how far those reasons, upon which the Jewish Sabbath in particular was instituted, may be supposed to affect us Christians.(1) It appears matter of moral obligation that there should be some day set apart more peculiarly devoted to the honour and worship of Almighty God.(2) It appears no less reasonable that the returns of such a day should be so frequent as to keep up a constant sense of religion, and their duty to God, in the minds of men, without interfering with the necessary affairs of human life.(3) It must be granted somewhat difficult to determine this matter exactly from any principle of natural reason, it not clearly discovering what proportion of our time we are to set apart for the more solemn worship of God, or why one day in seven, rather than six or eight, should be observed to this end.

III. HOW AND IN WHAT MANNER THE LORD'S DAY OUGHT TO BE OBSERVED.

1. We are to consider the Lord's Day is a time set apart for the more public worship and service of God, wherein we are to do Him honour and praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

2. We ought also on the Lord's Day to employ ourselves constantly in the private exercises of religion.

3. As the Lord's Day is a day of thanksgiving for the public or private mercies we have received from God, it is a proper exercise of it to perform acts of mercy and charity to others, and both with respect to their souls and bodies.

4. As the Lord's Day is a day devoted to the service of God and religion, let us take care to sanctify it by religious conversation.

5. That we may better attend these duties, we must not only intermit our ordinary labours and employments, but take off our thoughts, as much as possible, from the business of them.

(R. Fiddes, D. D.)